E-commerce and selling online is in the opinion of many people the next "Gold Rush" Forecasts say that the move to online shopping is due to be one of the biggest changes in social behaviour in this century. Many people are drawn to this idea as it appears to give them a chance to substitute, protect or replace their means of putting food on the table and keep a roof over their heads in difficult economic times. Many dream of not only maintaining a way of life, but of finding a way of life that formerly only dreamt of by dramatically increasing their incomes. Undoubtedly this can be done and is being achieved by many, however as in all things, it is a case of caveat emptor.Any move into the world of e-commerce or online trading must be preceded by research and such research must be a serious and determined quest to find the truth behind the hype. There is no substitute for proof of a concept by the collection of empirical data married to good in depth field research.
In order to find relevant data you can go online and do a number of searches to find all the relevant statistics you need. For instance forecast growth of the sector from well recognised consultancies, demand trends from using such things as Google trends are just two of the ways you can begin to get a "feel" for how the market is likely to behave and importantly what rate of growth can be expected.
Field research is a case of using some good old fashioned "nous" to ask the right questions in the right places. Start by doing a simple search on Google for a number of items of the type you are thinking of selling. If we take the example of dog beds for instance. Typing in the term dog beds will bring up millions of pages. Instead type in the name of a special type of dog bed and see which sites come up on page one that sell that make. Take a good look at the websites and note the features that attract you. Ask yourself if you would be tempted to buy from this site and why. Alternatively note down why you might not be tempted to buy. Use any of the free software programmes to take a screen shot of the site and save it. Recording all this type of data on a spreadsheet will give you a very valuable resource when you finally come to make your decision.
Finally look at the marketplaces where such sites are being sold. Many e-commerce sites are sold in online business for sale sites. Go into any of these and type in e-commerce stores. Look at the businesses that are being offered for sale in you preferred area and look at what the vendor is offering and what methods they use to find customers.
By doing this you will have a great deal of valuable up to date information on which to base your decision.
Peter Robson is an accountant with over 30 years experience in the small company sector. With his business partner, Debbie Crossley he runs a company helping people set up and run e-commerce businesses. For more information go to http://www.yournichebusiness.co.uk/
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